Hot colors, please!

How about some hot, hot, hot colors?!!

When I plan a project, I love to include black and/or white! It seems to be a common thread (ha! pun intended) in much of my warps. So this time around, no black or white! Just warm, yummy, delicious colors!!!

First up, the warping board! The warping board was one of the first pieces of equipment I ever purchased in the weaving world! I had been taking lessons at a weaving studio and wanted to plan a project at home. Thus, the beautiful warping board came home with me! We’ve been great friends ever since!

When you are measuring yarns on the warping board, it is inevitable that you will need to change colors. Earlier in my weaving career I would have tried to save as many inches of yarn as possible by not cutting and knotting it if I didn’t have to. These days, I have taken a different approach! If it saves me time and frustration to cut it – yes please, let’s cut it! Plus, I don’t typically use expensive yarns. Thus, it is helps with the overall justification. Bottom line is, all those ends you see at the picture above, are occasions when I’ve knotted and cut the yarn to change colors. (That was all sorts of wordy, wasn’t it? Sorry – I can get carried away!)

The yarns on the warping board can overlap and get squashed together, leading to a colorful sort of chaos. But, the one portion of the board that is completely organized is the “cross”! Let’s just say that the weaver will create a crossing pattern with the yarns that will completely save her sanity the moment it all comes off, keeping everything in order! (Plus, we throw in a little pixie dust for good measure…)

So before I slide the yarns off the warping board, I want to be sure I can identify the cross when it comes off. So, I take scrap yarns and tie the top sections of the project at the cross. See the photo above…

One of the important tools I utilize while working on the warping board is the guide string. The guide string goes on first to outline the path the yarns will take around the board. And because I’ll need to use the guide string again, I want to be sure I don’t cut it with the rest of the yarns when the project slides off! (The lavender-colored yarn is my guide string. I try to use some of my least favorite colors for this… poor lavender… )

One day, I’ll make a little video so you can see the process of twisting the yarns off the board. It only takes a minute to start at the bottom and develop our pseudo-braid all the way to the top. But, nearly impossible for me to catch a photo mid-stream. My hands are full! So, another time. For now, we’ll enjoy the red/brown section of the project knowing there will be some gorgeous oranges and yellows to come! Talk to you soon…